Robert Francis (poet)
Robert Francis (August 12, 1901 - July 13, 1987) was an American poet. Life Francis was born in Upland, Pennsylvania.http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/f/francis_r.htm Robert Francis Papers: An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University He graduated from Harvard University in 1923. He would later attend the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, where he once said that he felt that he'd come home. He lived most of his life in Amherst, Massachusetts, in a small house he built himself in 1940, which he called Fort Juniper. Robert Frost was a poetic mentor of Francis. Later work Francis published very little during the 1940s and 1950s. He decided that "for better or worse, I was a poet and there was really nothing else for me to do but go on being a poet. It was too late to change even if I had wanted to. Poetry was my most central, intense and inwardly rewarding experience."Perkins, p. 320. In 1960, Francis published The Orb Weaver, which revived his reputation as a poet. His autobiography, The Trouble with Francis, was published in 1971 and details his struggle with neglect.Perkins, p. 320. He lived for 16 more years, long enough to see his collected poems published, and to produce a final slender volume, Late Fire, Late Snow, which contains several of his finest lyrics.Biography of Robert Francis, PoemHunter. Web, Sep. 26, 2017. Writing Francis's 1st volume of poems, Stand Here With Me (1936), displays a poetic voice eerily reminiscent of Frost's own in carefully crafted nature poems.Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins, Ed. Contemporary American Literature. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988, p. 320. In later volumes, Francis found a voice distinctively his own, relaxed in meter and characterized by puns, word-plays, slant rhymes, and repetitions of key words. Aside from a long narrative poem in Frostian blank verse, Francis's poetry consists largely of concise lyrics, somewhat limited in thematic range but intensely crafted and deeply personal. He often wrote about nature and baseball. Recognition Frost has said that Robert Francis was “of all the great neglected poets, the greatest.”Rober Francis 1901-1987, Poetry Foundation, Web, Sep. 15, 2012. Francis won the Shelley Memorial Award in 1939. In 1984 the Academy of American Poets gave him its award for distinguished poetic achievement.Perkins, p. 320 His name for his house, Fort Juniper, inspired the editors at the University of Massachusetts Press to name their poetry award the Juniper Prize. Publications Poetry * Stand Here With Me. New York: Macmillan, 1936. *''Valhalla, and other poems''. New York: Macmillan, 1938. * The Face Against the Glass. Amherst, MA: privately printed, 1950. * The Orb Weaver. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1960. * Come Out Into the Sun: Poems new and selected. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1965. ISBN 978-0-87023-015-8 * Like Ghosts of Eagles: Poems, 1966-1974. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1974. * Butter Hill. 1984. * Collected Poems, 1936-1976. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976. * Late Fire, Late Snow: New and uncollected poems. (edited by Henry Lyman). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-87023-814-7 Novels * We Fly Away. New York: Swallow Press, 1948. Non-fiction * The Satirical Rogue on Poetry. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1968. * The Trouble with Francis (autobiography). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1971. ISBN 978-0-87023-083-7 * Frost: A time to talk (memoir). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1972. * A Certain Distance (prose sketches). Woods Hole, MA: Pourboire Press, 1976. * Pot Shots at Poetry (criticism). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1980. * The Satirical Rogue on All Fronts. Paul W. Carman, 1984. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results=Robert Francis, WorldCat, Web, July 15, 2012. See also * List of U.S. poets References * Wally Swist, "The Friendship of Robert Frost and Robert Francis: High-pressure Weather and Country Air", by Wally Swist, Puckerbrush Review (Constance Hunting, Editor, Orono, ME: Puckerbrush Press), xxi, ii, Winter/Spring 2003. * Wally Swist, The Friendship of Two New England Poets: Robert Frost and Robert Francis, A Lecture Presented at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry, New Hampshire. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2009. Notes External links ;Poems *"Eagle Plain" at Poetry 180 * Robert Francis 1901-1987 at the Poetry Foundation *Robert Francis at Poem Tree (13 poems) * Robert Francis at PoemHunter (20 poems) *Robert Francis at My Poetic Side (20 poems) *Robert Francis at Poetry Nook (22 poems) ;Audio / video *Robert Francis at YouTube ;Books *Robert Francis at Amazon.com ;Etc. * Robert Francis Papers at Syracuse University * Robert Francis Papers at University of Massachusetts, Amherst Category:1901 births Category:1987 deaths Category:American poets Category:Harvard University alumni Category:People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Category:Writers from Pennsylvania Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets